MOVES-Barclays makes new appointments in healthcare banking group

Dec 15 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc (LSE: BARC.L - news) said on Tuesday it

had hired two senior dealmakers in the United States as it seeks

to expand its healthcare investment banking group amid a frenzy

of dealmaking in the sector.

Ben Taylor, previously head of emerging pharmaceutical

companies at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, has joined

Barclays' team in New York. He has a 15-year career spanning

New York, California, Europe and Asia. In one of his previous

roles, he was co-head of healthcare for Goldman's China and

South East Asia investment banking business.

Christine Poon, previously a vice chair and worldwide chair

of pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson Inc, was named

senior adviser to Barclays' healthcare banking group. She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) will

be responsible for further developing relationships and

strategic dialogue with key healthcare clients.

After retiring from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ - news) , Poon spent five years

as dean of the Max M. Fisher College of Business at the Ohio

State University, the first to be appointed directly from the

private sector since the institution was founded in 1916.

Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Poon spent 15 years at

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co in various roles including

president of international medicines.

Other recent additions to the Barclays healthcare team

include Jason Truman, who left Morgan Stanley (Xetra: 885836 - news) earlier

this year to join the British bank in New York.

Barclays has lost talent too in what has been a record year

for healthcare mergers, led by Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE - news) 's $160 billion

acquisition of Allergan Plc (NYSE: AGN - news) . Earlier this year, a group

of five healthcare bankers led by Punit Mehta left Barclays to

work at Credit Suisse Group AG.

Nevertheless, Barclays has had a role on several of this

year's top healthcare deals, including advising Teva

Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd on its acquisition of a

generic drug portfolio of Allergan for $40.5 billion.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Matthew

Lewis)